Warner to sell copyright-free songs on Amazon

Music from Warner's artists, including Madonna, will be available to download DRM-free for the first time

By Emma Thelwell

11:00AM GMT 28 Dec 2007

Warner Music Group has finally bowed to mounting pressure from the MP3-generation, after agreeing to sell music online without copyright protection on Amazon.com's online music store.

Alongside Sony BMG, Warner has been a staunch advocate of digital rights-management (DRM) technology, a kind of digital encryption that vendors place on music files to prevent illegal copying, distribution and piracy.

Until now, Universal and EMI were the only major record labels to offer DRM-free tracks on Amazon, allowing people to download tracks in the universal MP3 format - meaning they can be played on most digital music devices, including Apple iPods, Microsoft Zunes, mobile phones, and any piece of software, such as Windows Media Player.

However, for the first time ever, Warner will now offer DRM-free music downloads exclusively on AmazonMP3, a rival to Apple's iTunes music store.

Music from Warner's artists, which include James Blunt, Madonna and Led Zeppelin, is currently available on iTunes - which enjoys a 70pc market share of digital music sales - although it is not DRM-free. This ensures that customers that purchase Warner's music on iTunes can only play the tracks on their iPod devices.

In November, Warner revealed that profits for the fourth-quarter had plunged 48pc, due to falling CD sales.

The LA Times reported today that in a memo to employees on Thursday, Warner's chief executive Edgar M. Bronfman Jr. said the record label would still take steps to protect its artists' copyrights. But he admitted that the debate over anti-copying technology had produced no consensus between the music industry and technology companies on a standard.

AmazonMP3, launched in September as a major rival to Apple's iTunes, now offers more than 2.9m songs from over 33,000 record labels in DRM-free format.

Currently only available to American customers, songs available on AmazonMP3 are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents.